The new steel? Hope and fear as a new plastics factory rises in Appalachia

This investigation is Part 1 of an ongoing reporting partnership by NBC News and the Global Reporting Centre on global supply chains. Read Part II here.

MONACA, Pa. — Steve Krizan, 64, remembers the nights in Aliquippa when steel was king. Back in the 1970s, more than 60 percent of the workforce in Beaver County, Pennsylvania, was tied to steel, and Aliquippa was the industry’s beating heart. Its streets were lined with tidy houses and busy shops, and when the day shift ended, its bars were packed full of steelworkers with flush pockets.